Shopping season is fast approaching, so there’s never been a better time to start optimizing your website. Making a few simple changes to the design of your site could have a dramatic impact on sales, rapidly increasing profits at one of the most lucrative times of the year. Take a look at some of the top design tips from our experts and ensure that your site grabs the attention of every visitor—and doesn’t let go.
Include unmissable CTAs
There are all kinds of different ways to add a call to action to your site; many of the most successful sites use a combination of these to achieve their results. Remember, the positioning of your call to action matters just as much as what it says, and how it looks.
Think about adding pop-ups (but don’t make them too off-putting or annoying!), or incorporating calls to action in your landing pages and sidebars. If you’re adding a call to action to a blog post or article, bear in mind Hubspot’s recent research, which found that posts with CTAs added in anchor text at the beginning outperformed those without by an average of 121%.
Simplify the checkout process
Few things are as exasperating as a convoluted checkout process that doesn’t actually work. Make sure you’re not losing sales by optimizing the entire process and making it as simple and fast as possible for every purchaser. Test the entire process regularly, and look out for any potential frustrations that might be losing you, customers.
Highlight rave reviews
Today’s consumers are far more likely to be influenced by reviews—both positive and negative. When considering making a purchase online, the vast majority of consumers will read recent reviews and take others’ opinions into account.
A good number of recent reviews can help to instil trust, while sites lacking reviews can sometimes leave a consumer feeling unsure about committing to a purchase. Highlight glowing reviews on your product pages and make sure that users can submit their feedback easily to help boost sales.
Add video tutorials
Did you know that including a video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80%? The majority of consumers now prefer to consume information via video than text, and that means that the addition of videos to your website can have a huge effect on sales.
Not only are videos more engaging, but they also provide plenty of opportunities to include compelling CTAs and persuade consumers to try a new product. Incorporate videos into your overall website design and you’ll soon see those sales improving.
Analyze your sales funnel
Use the data you already have to find out which areas of your site could use some improvement. A good place to start is your sales funnel. Put your analytics software to use and see where you’re losing visitors, then head to that page and start making changes to improve its design and usability.
Champion great photography
Steer clear of generic stock photographs. Instead, champion beautiful photography which really allows your products to shine. It’s best to include several different perspectives to give users a feel for the item. If you can offer users the option to zoom in on photos that are a huge plus too.
You could even go all out by adding a collection of photographs uploaded by previous customers, of themselves, using your products. This works particularly well for clothing sites and furniture sites, for example. Take a look at sports brand Adidas or interiors company Made to see it in action.
Optimize loading speeds
Slow websites are no longer acceptable. With so many great websites now loading in the blink of an eye, there’s no way that consumers are going to wait around while a page loads. Optimize loading speeds to ensure that potential buyers aren’t losing interest and moving onto one of your competitors.
Don’t overlook your mobile site
It’s easy to forget about mobile optimization when your attention is focused on your desktop site, but this would be a mistake! Mobile e-commerce, otherwise known as m-commerce, is a huge area of growth. As of 2019, it comprised over a quarter of e-commerce sales, and that figure is rising. Insider Intelligence has even forecast that m-commerce will be worth $284 billion by the end of 2020. So don’t overlook that mobile site—it’s never been more important.
Add easy to read FAQs
An FAQs section can be incredibly helpful for consumers, giving them the opportunity to resolve simple questions without having to go to the trouble of contacting your customer service team. Make sure your website answers common questions clearly and concisely. Your customers will thank you.
Pay attention to landing pages
Landing pages are enormously important when it comes to generating sales because they tend to have such high conversion rates. So if you want to improve sales, you’ll want to make sure that those landing pages are performing as well as they possibly can.
Check that landing pages feature the best photography, the most compelling copy and an engaging video to entice consumers onto your site. Look out for any opportunities to improve the customer journey – and the overall experience that your site provides.
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If your site is easy to use, great looking and provides potential customers with the answers to any questions that they might have, then you’ll have no trouble securing sales over the course of this shopping season, and beyond. Use these design tips to start unlocking the real potential of your site. Before long those sales figures will start creeping up!
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